Amtrak bus stop in Kinston unveiled

Tuesday

Oct 2, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 2, 2012 at 9:30 PM

Train passengers can catch bus to Wilson station

David Anderson

Today marks the first day Amtrak train passengers living in the Kinston area can go to the Kinston-Lenoir County Visitors and Information Center, leave their cars, and ride a motor coach to a regional train station in Wilson.

Amtrak has established two Thruway bus routes — one originates in Wilmington and the other in Morehead City — to bring passengers living in communities in Eastern North Carolina to the Wilson station.

“The new Thruway bus services are an important connection that will bring Amtrak passengers to Eastern North Carolina communities and provide expanded transportation options for the people in the region,” Joe Boardman, Amtrak’s president and CEO, stated.

The Wilmington bus line includes stops in Jacksonville, Kinston and Goldsboro before arriving in Wilson, and Tuesday was the inaugural run of the Thruway service in Eastern N.C.

Amtrak and N.C. Department of Transportation representatives, as well as local dignitaries from each community, rodeboth bus routesand made stops in each city.

The white motor coach rolled into the Lenoir County visitor center — at the intersection of U.S. 70 East and U.S. 258 South — shortly after noon Tuesday, where a brief ceremony was held to unveil a sign designating the visitor center as a Thruway bus stop.

“I think this visitor center has served us very well, and I think, as a bus stop (it will serve well),” said Kinston-Lenoir County Parks and Recreation Director Bill Ellis.

Jay McArthur, Amtrak’s principal officer, state partnerships, who served as emcee for the ceremony, called the visitor center “a wonderful facility, just marvelous.”

The Thruway route will serve passengers riding on Amtrak’s Palmetto line, which runs twice a day and makes 20 stops between New York and Savannah, Ga.

Todd Stennis, director of government affairs-south for Amtrak, said there is a fee to ride the bus, but it is built into the train ticket price.

Tickets can be reserved by calling 800-USA-RAIL, or visiting Amtrak.com. A mobile app is also available.

Thruway passengers should show their eTicket when boarding the bus, which can be printed out or displayed on a smartphone.

“We’re so pleased to be here,” Stennis said while at the visitor center. “What a great facility and a great community, and we look forward to a long relationship with Kinston.”

Lucy Marston, Lenoir County tourism director, said there will be designated parking for Amtrak passengers behind the monument to Confederate soldiers, and there is no fee to park and leave a vehicle.

She said having the visitor center as a stop is an opportunity for Kinston, as riders “may find something that’s very, very interesting to them in Kinston and they may stay or come back.”

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.

BREAKOUT BOX:

The Thruway bus service leaves the Kinston-Lenoir County Visitors and Information Center daily

Buses for northbound trains depart at 12:13 p.m. and at 4:14 p.m. for southbound trains